The usual Chinese title for the original Japanese movie is 午夜凶鈴 which might be transliterated roughly as "Midnight Evil/Bad Ring" where the Chinese word "ring" here is without ambiguity referring specifically to the sound a phone or a bell makes.
I hence always thought "The Ring" referred to the telephone ring.
But in the American remake (see below picture), it seems that "The Ring" refers instead to the halo of light that one sees (from the bottom of a well) when a cover is placed over the well.
My question is this: In the original Japanese version, what was "The Ring" supposed to refer to? The telephone ring? The American interpretation? Or something else?